CEC statistics show KMT part of most ‘ghost voting’ cases

TOUGH JOB:The figures showed KMT involvement in five out of six cases and had been fined millions of New Taiwan dollars for committing voting fraud

By Fan Cheng-hsiang
and Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter, with Staff writer

A pledge by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration to rid the nation’s electoral system of corruption may prove a real challenge to fulfill, as five out of the six cases that have been investigated involving the use of “ghost voters” to affect election results involved candidates from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), according to statistics from the Central Election Commission.

VIOLATIONS

The commission’s latest statistics showed that six candidates, five from the KMT and one from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), had violated the amended version of Article 146 of the Criminal Code, which regulates the elections, since its amendment in 2007.

The statistics also showed that the KMT had been fined a total of NT$3.3 million (US$111,500) because of the infractions committed by its candidates, against NT$650,000 for the DPP.

LAW

Paragraph 2 of the article, an addendum added by the Legislative Yuan on Jan. 24, 2007, stipulates that a person who falsely makes a census registration to obtain the right to vote and does so will be subject to imprisonment for a maximum of five years.

In addition, political parties whose candidates are convicted of transgressing the code are also liable to a fine as collateral punishment in accordance with the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公務人員選罷法).